Driver assistance systems are increasingly being used in motor vehicles. Some of these driver assistance systems serve to protect passengers and further participants in traffic, e.g., pedestrians, cyclists or other vehicles. To this end, the driver assistance systems usually comprise electronic auxiliary devices for monitoring the surroundings in order to be able to suitably assist the driver in particular driving situations, e.g., by means of braking assistance, emergency braking or evasive maneuvers.
Various testing devices are used to test the above-mentioned driver assistance systems, particularly driver assistance systems with so-called anticipatory sensors for monitoring the surroundings of a motor vehicle, wherein, in known testing devices, various test objects are moved across the driving path of the motor vehicle in order to simulate, e.g., a situation in which a pedestrian crosses a road or in which another vehicle crosses the driving path. In order to be able to check or interpret whether or when a driver assistance system initiates an intervention in the dynamics of the vehicle or activates other protective measures in the event of an imminent collision, the test object must stay in the driving path of the motor vehicle until the moment of contact with the motor vehicle or at least until a moment shortly before the moment of contact.
A testing device, particularly for a pedestrian protection system in a motor vehicle, is known from, e.g., DE 10 2008 025 539 A1, wherein a test object is connected to a carriage that can be moved along a crosshead that extends across the driving path of the motor vehicle, wherein the crosshead is arranged at such a height across the driving path of the motor vehicle that the motor vehicle can drive under the crosshead and the test object is thus suspended freely in the driving path of the motor vehicle.
A disadvantage of known testing devices consists in the fact that the test object or the motor vehicle is damaged when driving situations involving collisions are simulated. Moreover, the number of possible applications of known testing devices is very small. Mostly, said known testing devices are stationary devices installed at a test area so that they can be used to simulate a small number of different driving situations only. Another disadvantage consists in the fact that particular natural sequences of movements (e.g., on account of unevenness of the ground) cannot be simulated because of the use of test objects that are freely suspended from a crosshead or a guide rope, and that unrealistic vibrations of the test objects or of the dummies may occur during the test.